Quality of public open spaces and recreational walking

Objectives: We examined associations between specific public open space (pos) attributes and recreational walking to local pos. Methods: Between october 2004 and december 2006, 1465 adults of the residential environments project, conducted in perth, australia, reported whether they walk to a pos for recreation. For each participant, we identified all open spaces larger than 0.8 hectares within 1.6 kilometers from home. On the basis of field audit data, we created 3 scores (presence, count, size-weighted presence) for 19 specific open space attributes. Results: With logistic regression analyses, we found that walking to a pos was associated with the presence of gardens, grassed areas, walking paths, water features, wildlife, amenities, dog-related facilities, and off-leash areas for dogs. It was also associated with the highest number of these attributes in a single open space, but not with the total number of attributes in all poss within 1.6 kilometers of home. Conclusions: Building 1 high-quality local park may be more effective in promoting recreational walking than is providing many average-quality parks